To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in the Odds ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
Jim Reports:
I spent one full day traveling, early in the week. Consulting work is never boring, but it can be hectic.
I’ve just about finished my firewood cutting for the year.
I finally got back to working on my novel manuscripts for the second two novels in the Counter-Caliphate Chronicles (“Land Of Promise“) series. I had intentionally put those manuscripts on hold for several years, to see what would become of the Islamic State (IS). I also want to see the end result of the coronavirus pandemic. Not surprisingly, it was more government and absurdly higher levels of public debt. So I’ve made just a few adjustments to the storylines. Sorry, but I haven’t yet set release dates for either of those books.
Now, Lily’s report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
This week we had some much-needed rain, though we didn’t get as much as some other areas of the Redoubt. Our Prayers go out to those who lost their homes in the Oregon and Grey fires of the Spokane Valley region.
We were in the Spokane Valley visiting again, son, daughter-in-law, grandkids and an aunt and cousin who came to visit the day after the fires began. The smoke was horrible. It had also reached our ranch though it wasn’t as bad there as in the Spokane Valley. We all swam that day in Lake Couer D’Alene for an hour or so, that day. It was my first time swimming in that lake. What a beautiful, clear lake.
This week, I spent a lot of time in the garden pulling more weeds and scraping the top layer of soil that had weed seeds, mostly grasses and Smartweed/Lady’s thumb. I put the soil laden with seeds in the wheelbarrow with the weeds and brought them out to the burn pile to be burned once the fire bans are lifted, this coming fall. I am preparing the soil to put in cover crops for the fall to put back nutrients taken up by this year’s vegetable growth. I already planted peas and buckwheat in one bed. I also ordered Winter Rye seeds, Daikon radish and received those this week. I will be planting these in garden beds and in our near meadow to build up our soils.
I again harvested and froze Zuchs (4 gallons) and turnips (1 gallon). I will be dehydrating any extra zuchs from here on out. I picked more carrots, washed them and put them in the fridge with the others. I harvested some of the interspersed potatoes that are all about the garden. They were Yukon and Banana Fingerlings. Oh, and I harvested Fingerling potatoes from a large planter pot in the greenhouse. The potatoes do not do as well in the greenhouse in pots as they do outdoors, in my experience.
I’ve been harvesting tomatoes, letting some of them finish ripening in the house. I am also freezing them for future use.
I harvested more broccoli, blanched it, and froze it — two gallon’s worth.
I harvested some onions. It appears that I didn’t plant as many this year as in previous years.
I am harvesting purple and white cauliflower this year. Not a whole lot to preserve, so we’ve been eating it. Yum. Maybe I will be able to have enough to at least freeze a gallon’s worth this coming week.
I need more room in my freezers for the fresh produce that I wish to freeze. I had a case of frozen organic strawberries that were bought last year that I took out of the freezers and thawed. I blended half of the berries, added just a little bit of sugar and dehydrated them in the dehydrator to make strawberry fruit leather. The other half of the berries I made into Strawberry jam. I don’t know why I keep making jams. We eat very little bread, and I don’t like us eating much sugar. I went through the cupboards and saw that I have three cases of pint jars of strawberry jam. I think we’re good for a while. We will keep them for a time when we might need the sweets. In the future, I will be concentrating on dehydrating and just freezing fruits. But I do still want to make mint jelly, to go with our lamb meals.
We dosed the sheep with Ivermectin this week.
I am preparing to work with our sheep’s wool that we put aside after shearing them this past spring. This past week, Jim ordered carding brushes and I bought a salad spinner to gently wring water out of the wool roving, after I wash it. I am looking forward to the fall when the garden is in and we have time to work with the wool.
Later in the week, the wonderful Daughter-in-law, grandsons, Miss Violet and I, went Blackberry picking in the Green Bluff region of Washington State. It was much fun, but at this time in the season we were pretty much just gleaning the brambles. We both were able to only pick two pounds.That was a bummer!
We also both purchased multiple boxes of peaches, and picked peppers. These I will be processing next week.
So, this week I cleaned out my refrigerator. I had some older store-bought carrots in it. I made a Chicken soup with the carrots and gave the rest to the cows. Now, everything in there except for condiments, milk, citrus, and tortillas was all produced by my gardens. How exciting! Now I want to use up any store-bought condiments and make my own. I’ve made the relish this year thusfar, but I now want to make ketchup and barbecue sauce. But I have issues with the lengthy amount of time it takes to reduce the tomatoes and something always happens that makes the tomato sauce become bitter. Do any of you folks out there have some advice about reducing tomatoes to thick sauce without boiling it to death and making it become bitter? I would appreciate it. Please e-mail me. (See our Contact page.)
I continued with Calisthenics push-ups, sit-ups, leg lifts, etc. This week I worked on the full-on push-ups in addition to the girly push-ups. I can do thirty of those. I can now do six full-on push-ups in a row. I will keep working on that number in the coming days. I do 50 sit-ups at one go.
Concerning Maui, the Spokane Valley fires, the Canadian fires, the fires in Spain, Greece, Tenerife, and elsewhere in the world: God will destroy those who destroy the earth.
Revelation 11:18 teaches:
And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Come Quickly Lord Jesus!!
May you all have a very blessed and safe week.
– Avalanche Lily, Rawles
o o o
As always, please share and send e-mails of your own successes and hard-earned wisdom and we will post them in the “Snippets” column this coming week. We want to hear from you.